


Mismatch

by despotcito



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Attempted Murder, Backstory, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Lack-Two | Blake Has Heterochromia, Lack-Two | Blake Has Scars, Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures Achroma | Colress, that is to say: in this fic colress is UNHINGED
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27582596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/despotcito/pseuds/despotcito
Summary: Colress initially wasn’t concerned when he first caught sight of the boy below him on the roof of Area 3. Really, what did it matter if a child had caught wind of his plans? Just toss them aside and continue forward.Then he saw the child’s face.Mismatched eyes. A hard stare, like the ones thrown at him by the parents of that child in their final moments. There was no recognition in his gaze, but even if he didn’t understand, Colress knew from the second the boy’s face came into view that the one loose end in his past had come back to mock him once again.---On an abandoned rooftop, Colress recalls the past, and all the grudges that come connected with it.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Mismatch

**Author's Note:**

> hey lack-two stans come get nya'lls juice. colress stans i rly hope you're game!colress stans bc if you're manga!colress stans i will beat you up on sight

Colress remembered the first time he had met Lack-Two. It had been around 12 or years ago, in the lab he spent most of his days agonizing over research. He had thought it quite peculiar when his coworker, a kindly man by the name of Grey, had entered one morning with a baby clinging to him. 

“Is this a laboratory or a kindergarten, sir?” Colress had commented, eyeing the child in his colleague’s arms with a raised eyebrow.

Grey had laughed at that. “Sorry, I wasn’t able to find a babysitter on such short notice,” he said, “It’s alright, though. Lack’s never been the disruptive type.”

Colress had been skeptical - who wouldn’t be? - but it’s not like there was anything he could do about it. “And what about Rachel?”

“She’s out sick right now, so I don’t want to hassle her. Making her take care of a child when she’s ill wouldn’t be very loving of me, would it?”

Colress hummed boredly. “No, I suppose it would not.” Still, what an inconvenience this would be - dividing his attention between research and a child that wasn’t even old enough to think for themselves.

He turned to look at the child in his mismatched eyes, all too wide and innocent. The child turned to look at him in turn.

Those eyes, both colors reflecting a piece of his parents within them, stared into him with a childish curiosity that one only just discovering the world could have. 

Colress couldn’t express how he found it disgusting beyond words.

* * *

  
  


Colress initially wasn’t concerned when he first caught sight of the boy below him on the roof of Area 3. Really, what did it matter if a child had caught wind of his plans? Just toss them aside and continue forward.

Then he saw the child’s face.

Mismatched eyes. A hard stare, like the ones thrown at him by the parents of that child in their final moments. There was no recognition in his gaze, but even if he didn’t understand, Colress knew from the second the boy’s face came into view that the one loose end in his past had come back to mock him once again.

No longer was there that childlike wonder in his eyes, only the piercing gaze of a boy that had seen far too much for a child of his own age. _Interesting,_ Colress thinks, because if this isn’t for revenge then what is that look for? What became of the boy, after his family had been disposed of without a care?

Not like it matters. That boy is the last link to the family that he eradicated - destroying him would finally settle things for good. Colress would sleep soundly tonight, knowing that that wretched family of researchers was finally rotting in the ground where they belonged.

He can’t help the grin that splits across his face, watching as the child falls to his demise, doomed by the Pokemon his very own parents helped bring to life. Colress was always weak for some dramatic irony, after all - could you blame him for feeling satisfaction at the sight?

But the story doesn’t end there. And that’s when things start to spiral further than Colress can control.

* * *

The next time Colress had met Lack-Two, it had been about two weeks later. This time it was Rachel, the stern yet motherly woman, who had decided to bring her son into work. For the life of him, Colress could not understand why.

“He’s interested,” Rachel had said to him, adjusting her glasses as she scribbled on her notepad, “I’m not quite sure what it is, but Lack’s always loved watching us work. He’s incredibly intelligent.”

How a baby - a creature that couldn’t even form its own thoughts - could ever be considered _intelligent_ was beyond Colress. The thing couldn’t even depend on itself, needing constant attention - how could he ever have the capability to love watching something as important, yet slow as research?

“How can you tell?” Colress had asked. 

Rachel had smiled at that. “You can see it in his eyes.”

And so Colress looked, looked into those mismatched eyes and tried to search for what Rachel had sworn was there. The baby had stared back, eyes wide and a hand half in his mouth. And Colress _had_ tried, but looking into the curious eyes of that thing had done nothing but make him more revolted than before.

“Ah- Lack, you shouldn’t do that,” Rachel gently said, guiding the child’s hand away from his mouth, “He keeps mimicking our Oshawott. They’re absolutely _enamored_ with each other.” She had laughed softly. 

Colress hadn’t said anything, but the disgust boiled in his stomach all the same. How could something so pitiful, so simple as to imitate creatures lesser than themselves, ever be considered something intelligent? 

The day goes on. Colress pretends like he cannot see the creature, gazing at him with wide, mismatched eyes.

* * *

  
  


The boy walks out alive. Blood and dirt decorates his scarred face, and his breathing is heavy, but the fact of the matter is that the boy is still breathing and Colress cannot _stand_ it.

His continued commitment to existence, the fact that he’s still living despite everything, it’s beyond infuriating to watch. Though, in a sense, it’s also _interesting._ A boy who defies death, who fights with a deadly calm, without any semblance of the tiny baby who stared up at him dumbly with a hand in his toothless mouth. 

Things grow. Things change. Unfortunately, no matter how intriguing it is, Colress can’t help but despise the boy in front of him. 

Though, his methods _are_ rather delightful - custom-made pokeball covers tailored to him, with a luxury ball hiding underneath - he didn’t realize the boy would have it in him. Perhaps in another life, they could’ve been allies. 

Unfortunately, in this life, there is no warmth in his heart reserved for the child who should’ve died 12 years ago. No matter how intriguing it would be to hold a conversation with this boy, now grown up to be hardened and beyond as intelligent as his mother thought he was, there was no room for him in the grand scheme of things. 

That boy stares into him with mismatched eyes, no longer full of wonder and curiosity for a brand new world, but a _challenging_ look. There’s a fire in his eyes, and an unshakable amount of confidence for a boy who had nearly died not just a few minutes ago.

“Do you really think such a defective and short-ranged machine could get rid of us?”

Colress’s skin _boils,_ memories flashing back of a woman staring up at him with such defiance, blood pooling around her as she spat all the venom she could in her last moments - _‘You think you’ll get anywhere near him with your defective machines?’,_ she had said, with all the wrath in her barely-beating heart.

Funny - what was the phrase? _Like mother, like son?_ It was striking so true now. They were both just as utterly unbearable as each other. Too naive back then, and too naive now - if the child thought he was unbeatable, Colress would have to knock him off that pedestal.

“Take your best shot,” the boy says, fearlessly, “I’ll prove to you just how defective that machine really is.”

_‘Defective’._

The word had rung in his head, haunting him for 12 years. That word, that ugly word, that act of defiance from such a wretched woman, all of it came to a head and exploded within him as he faced the disgusting product of the two colleagues whose memory should’ve died with them.

It wouldn’t matter soon. He was just like his mother, after all - it would be pitifully easy to wrap up this loose end, to send the brat off towards the same fate that had befell his parents.

12 years ago, Colress had made a promise to a dying woman, vowing to destroy the child she had held so dear to her heart. 

In the present, Colress sees the boy in front of him, stubborn and cold and calculating, and knows full well that he intends to keep that promise.

“ **_TECHNO BLAST!_ **”

* * *

The third time Colress had met Lack-Two, it had been during a meeting with Grey.

The child had been playing in the corner with puzzle blocks, quietly and calmly, with all of the tact that Colress wouldn’t have expected from a child of his age. The child was always quiet and barely ever babbled, which Colress was thankful for, though it came at the cost of that damn _staring._

“Have you taken my idea into consideration yet?” Colress asked, trying not to sound too expectant. “About the alternative project I was telling you about?” 

Grey sighed, preparing himself to go through the same song and dance that had been repeating for the past month. "For the last time, we're scientists, Colress, not animals," he had said matter-of-factly, "We have to abide by a code of ethics. What you're suggesting _could_ help research speed significantly, but it's still morally wrong. Genesect is a living creature - doesn't that matter to you?”

Grey was irritating. Too bound by the code of _ethics_ , too cowardly to pursue all the avenues that were open to them, too stubborn to revolutionize. It was just about enough to make Colress go mad - could that man not see the possibilities that laid ahead if he were to just gain a little more conviction?

_‘Bide your time,’_ a voice in his head said, _‘You won’t need them for much longer.’_

So Colress sighed, smiled politely, and bowed his head. “I’m sorry sir, it was just a suggestion. I just want this project to succeed.”

Grey smiled back warmly, but with a hint of tension. It was subtle, but Colress was no idiot. He could notice things like these. “I understand. But still, try to keep your ambitions in check, hey? We’ll get there in the end, so there’s no need to rush.”

The child- that _creature,_ far too perceptive, yet understanding so little, watched from the corner. Puzzle blocks scattered astray at its feet, forgotten in lieu of paying attention to a conversation it cannot even begin to comprehend.

_‘He’s incredibly intelligent,’_ Rachel had said, once, a fond smile on her face. What a joke.

Colress’s blood boiled, as the creature that his colleagues called a child stared at him with mismatched eyes, with a look that felt oh-so _mocking_ , and wished to destroy it.

* * *

Colress _loathed_ Lack-Two's eyes - one red, one brown. Though Lack-Two's skin was now marred with scars, and his gaze was cold and steely, those eyes that were far too reminiscent of his parents, of his former wide-eyed self… Those could never be changed. 

Lack-Two's mere existence, the very fact that he was still alive despite everything and standing in front of Colress right now, all of it was just one big symbol of Rachel and Grey's defiance and he wanted to destroy it until nothing was left behind.

That stubborn brat, provoking him, _taunting_ him - doesn’t he know that Colress could eradicate him in an instant? Does he simply not _care?_ Is it foolishness, or something else? Either way, it pisses him off. Such a creature shouldn’t be wearing that kind of expression on their face, looking so calm in the face of his demise.

But, and he hates to admit it, the boy is _smart._ He knows all the right buttons to press, all the ways to push at someone until they break, and it would be exciting were he not the one at the other end of it. 

When all is said and done, and the pokeball on the ground clicks, Colress feels impressed. He underestimated that boy, thought of him just as the weak creature that he was all those years ago. Of course, he should’ve known - a lot of things change within 12 years, after all. No matter his hatred towards the boy, he can admit some respect when it’s due.

“Team Plasma’s scientists couldn’t keep it in a pokeball, so I had to hurriedly devise a different method to control it,” Colress says, arms spread out wide, “But in the end, you captured it!”

And he stares down, down at the boy who is no longer weak, down at the boy who is no longer pitiful, down at the boy who has grown and challenged him and fought and _won_ , and he speaks once more.

“That’s why I would like to hear your name.”

The boy glares back up at him with all the intensity that his parents had on their last day alive, his mismatched eyes glowing softly in the darkness of the night. There’s a hardness to his gaze, all sorts of unspoken things that cannot be said, all kinds of memories that no 12 year old should’ve ever had to face written all into the coldness of his once warm eyes.

“I am a member of the international police,” the boy says, “Superintendent Lack-Two.”

Colress frowns down at the boy- at _Lack-Two-_ and says in a deathly calm tone, "I will remember that name." 

As if that name hadn't been burned into his mind from the day he vowed to destroy that family until not even a memory was left behind.

  
  



End file.
